Conventional boats are subject to wave action and, particularly for smaller boats or rougher water or faster boats, the resulting movements of the boat can be very uncomfortable for the passengers. In order to increase passenger comfort, some boats have incorporated suspension systems into the seating, or in the case of personal watercraft, the seating area. Other boats have used pontoon systems to control the entire boat's attitude and response to wave conditions.
One arrangement of a suspended seating area is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,281, issued Feb. 18, 1997. In the personal watercraft shown in that patent, various arrangements of suspension which act only in the primarily vertical plane are shown. The embodiments of the suspension shown in the patent are analogous to motorcycle suspensions since they only provide travel in the plane perpendicular to the underside of the watercraft. Thus, only the pitch motion of the watercraft is controlled. When the wave motion is oblique to the boat's direction of travel, the suspension cannot act to reduce components of acceleration and shock which are not in the plane in which the suspension system acts.
Since a boat must be capable of travelling in any direction relative to the waves, there are almost always pitch, roll and yaw components of motion dynamically induced by wave interaction. All of these components of motion cannot be reduced by a single plane suspension system primarily acting in the pitch axis.
Another attempt to improve occupant comfort in watercraft has been by using adjustable or dynamic pontoon arrangements on multi-hull watercraft. These arrangements are only applicable to multi-hull boats and require large, complicated hull assemblies which move relative to each other or to a main hull and attenuate the boat's dynamic response to wave action. Typically, the pontoons move primarily in the roll axis and can produce complex dynamic response to some wave conditions.
In view of the above and other limitations of the prior art, there exists a need for a watercraft ride enhancement system which attenuate more than just pitch motion.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide for dynamic control of the deck of a boat about the pitch, yaw and roll axes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a dynamic control system or ride enhancement for the deck of a boat which is readily adaptable to a wide variety of hull designs, including single and multi-hull boat designs.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a dynamic control system which may have different spring and damping characteristics in the substantially pitch and substantially yaw axes.
An additional object of the present invention is to further enhance dynamic control of the boat's deck through use of the aerodynamic restorative force created by an airfoil.